>> schieffer: today on face the nation, did you hear what rick santorum said. he's the man of the hour in republican politics. he's with us this morning. the latest leader in the republican race at the top of the national polls and even in michigan where mitt romney grew up. yesterday he was feeling his oats. in one 24-hour period he questioned the president's religious beliefs. >> it's about some phony ideal, some phony theology, not a theology based on the bible, a different theology. but no less a theology. >> schieffer: said prenatal testing is really just the president's way to reduce costs in taking care of the disabled. >> it saves money.

in health care. why? because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done. because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society. >> schieffer: and questioned the value of public schools. >> the idea that the federal government should be running schools frankly much less that the state government should be running schools is anachronistic. >> schieffer: we'll ask him about all of it this morning and then check in with our round table of norah o'donnell and john dickerson plus karen tumulty of the "washington post" and todd spangler of the detroit free press. this is "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> schieffer: good morning. welcome, senator. you are the leader in the polls this morning. i have to say you were very

busy yesterday. the associated press led its story of your appearance in columbus ohio by saying, quote, rick santorum questioned barack obama's christian values. that was after you lashed out at the president's proposal on energy of all things when you said this. >> it's not about you. it's not about you. it's not about your quality of life. it's not about your job. it's about some phony ideal, some phony theology. oh, not a theology based on the bible, a different theology. ( applause ) >> schieffer: so, senator, i've got to ask you. what in the world were you talking about? >> well i was talking about the radical environmentalist. that's what i was talking about energy, this idea that man is here to serve the earth as opposed to husband its resources and be good stewards of the earth. and i think that is a phony ideal. i don't believe that that's

what we're here to do. that man is here to use the resources and use them wisely, to care for the earth, to be a steward of the earth. we're not here to serve the earth. the earth is not the objective. man is the objective. i think a lot of radical environmentalists have it upsidedown. >> schieffer: how does that translate into some sort of theology? >> it's a world view. >> schieffer: theology is not based on the bible. that suggests that he's not a christian. >> i wasn't suggesting the president's not a christian. i accept the fact that the president is a christian. i just said that when you have a world view that elevates the earth above man and says that we can't take those resources because we're going to harm the earth by things that frankly are just not scientifically proven, for example, that the whole global warming debate, this is all an

attempt to, you know, to centralize power and to give more power to the government. it's not questioning the president's beliefs in christianity. i'm talking about the belief that man is... should be in charge of the earth and have dominion over it and be good stewards of it. >> schieffer: i don't want to spend the whole program on this. >> good. >> schieffer: was your use of the word theology, perhaps you could have had a better word than? don't you know that that or do you wonder that that might lead some people suggest that you were questioning the president's faith? >> no, because i've repeatedly said i don't question the president's faith. i've repeated said that i believe the president is a christian. he says he is. but i am talking about his world view or his... the way he approaches problems in this country. i think they're different than how most people do in america. >> schieffer: at another stop in columbus, you took on the president on prenatal care. for expectant mothers.

here's what you said in this passage. >> one of the things that you don't know about obama care and one of the mandates is they require free prenatal testing in every insurance policy in america. why? because it saves money. in health care. why? because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society. >> schieffer: senator, i have to ask you to give some explanation of that. you sound like you're saying that the purpose of prenatal care is to cause people to have abortions, to get more abortions in this country. i think there are number of people would say that's not the purpose at all. >> well, bob, that's simply not true. the bottom line is that a lot of prenatal tests are done to

identify deformities inout row and the customary procedure is to encourage abortion. in fact, prenatal testing that particularly a.m. neoson tee sis. i'm not talking about general prenatal care. you said prenatal care. i didn't say prenatal care shouldn't be covered. we're talking about specifically prenatal testing and a.m. neoson tee sis which is a procedure that actually creates a risk of having a miscarriage when you have it and is done for the purposes of identifying maladies of a child in the womb. in in many cases and in fact in most cases a physician recommend particularly if there's a problem recommend abortion. we know, bob, 90% of down's syndrome in america are to suggest where does that come from? i have a child. almost 100% of children like mine are encouraged to be aborted. i know what i'm talking about here. >> schieffer: i know you know

what you're talking about. i know that well. i know you also had another child that was stillborn. >> and i was... hold on, bob, whoa, whoa, whoa. bob, bob. >> schieffer: just hold on. >> look, my child was not stillborn. my child was born alive. he lived two hours. by the way, prenatal testing was... we had a somogram done there. they detected a problem. and the doctor said, you know, you should consider an abortion. this is typical, bob. this is what goes on. in medical rooms around the country. yes, prenatal testing, do, in fact, result more often than not in this country in abortions. that is a fact. >> schieffer: i stand corrected on the stillborn. you're absolutely right. i simply misspoke. but, senator, do you not want any kind of prenatal testing? i mean, would we just turn our back on science at, that this is something that expectant

mothers should not go through, that it's best not to know about these things ahead of time? i mean, is that what you're saying here? >> no. look, people have the right to do it but to have the government force people to provide it free, to me, has... is a bit loaded. there are all sorts of prenatal testing which should be provided. i have no problem with that if the insurance companies want to. i'm not for any of these things to be forced. let me step back and say i don't believe any of these procedures, anything in insurance should be forced. let me just start from there. but the idea of having, for example, somograms and other types of prenatal care, absolutely, i think that is a wise thing to do. if i was an employer, i would certainly encourage that. but not all prenatal testing, amniocentesis are used for the purposes of identifying children who are disabled and in most cases end up with

abortions. >> schieffer: let me just ask you, you're not saying that the cause of this, that the president looks down on disabled people, are you? you're not accusing him of that? >> well, the president supported partial birth abortion and partial birth abortion is a procedure used almost exclusively to kill children late in pregnancy when they've been found out to be disabled. the president voted for a provision that said that children born alive as a result of abortions late in pregnancy who were otherwise viable should be allowed to be killed by the doctor. i think the president has a very bad record on the issue of abortion and children who are disabled who are in the womb. i think this simply is a continuation of that idea. >> schieffer: since you brought all this up, i just wanted to make sure that everybody had a clear understanding of exactly what you meant and how you feel about this. another thing that raised a

few eyebrows yesterday, senator, you questioned the value of all things at the public school system. here's what you said about that. >> but the idea that the federal government should be running schools frankly much less that the state government should be running schools is an and akron anachronistic. it goes back to the time of industrialization of america when people came off the farms where they did home school. or have the little neighborhood school. and into these big factories. we built equal factories called public schools. >> schieffer: there you are, senator. i mean, are you saying that we shouldn't have public schools now? i thought public schools were the foundation of american democracy. >> i'm saying that local communities and parents should be the ones who are in control of public education, certainly not the federal government and as i said before, as i said in that clip i think the state

governments have not done a particularly good job this public education. i think public education should be a dynamic process that is locally run, that works with parents to provide the optimal opportunity for each child in america to get the education that they need, not what the federal government or the state government says that you should have. that's why i refer to it as going back to the industrialization of america when we had a system in this country with industrialization where you had one car produced. you maybe got it in two colors. we haven't changed public education significantly since then. every single car on a detroit line is custom orders. why? because it's designed to meet the needs of the customer. the education system, federally run, state-run, is not designed to meet the needs of the customer. it's designed for the purposes of the school not the children and the parents who are the customers of that system. i think we need a dramatic change. >> schieffer: you know,

senator, if everybody could afford to home school their children. >> i'm not talking about home schooling. i'm talking about public education, bob. >> schieffer: there are little communities where the people couldn't afford to have a public school. that's why you have states involved in the schools. >> it's one thing for states to help fund public education. it's another thing to dictate and micromanage and create a one size fits all education system in states and certainly in the federal government what president obama is trying to do. what we need is to have the same kind of change and dynamic change in the public school system as we've seen in the economy of this country. customized. everybody gets what they need. i have seven children. i can tell you each one of them learn differently. all of them can excel in different settings. that goes with every american child. we can do better than a system that one in three children drop out of school. if that is the hallmark, bob, that you talk about as a great society, when one of three

children drop out of school and a lot of the folks who don't drop out of school still can't read at grade level, that to me is a failure and defending that failure is not something i'm planning on doing which is what the president does. >> schieffer: what do you do? what would you do to fix it, senator? >> well, as i said before, first i would get the federal government out. with respect to mandates and designing curriculum and the like, i would get the state government out. i think that the parents should be in charge working with the local school district to try to design an educational environment for each child that optimizes their potential. whether it's in a public school or a private school or a christian school or whatever kind of setting that is best that the people at the local level can determine, i think that's where we need to go in education. it's got to be a much more dynamic process. we are failing american children. we're failing our society. with having these high rates of dropouts and the people graduating without the skills

or frankly without the value structure that is necessary to be able to go out and work hard and to be able to produce in our society and to build strong communities. i think we need some really dra ma i can changes. we're not getting that. >> schieffer: senator, i want to thank you very much for being with us this morning. i had hoped to ask you about some questions about the economy. but frankly you made so much news yesterday, out there on the campaign trail, i felt compelled to ask you about that. thank you so much for. >> i'm happy to make news about important issues of the day that obviously don't get talked about a lot. >> schieffer: thank you so much. we'll be back in just a minute with a political round table. [ wind howling ] [ technician ] are you busy? management just sent over these new technical manuals. they need you to translate them into portuguese.

by tomorrow. [ male announcer ] ducati knows it's better for xerox to manage their global publications. so they can focus on building amazing bikes. with xerox, you're ready for real business. >> schieffer: welcome back. joining us now are karen tumulty, the political reporter for the "washington post,"ed to spangler who is the washington correspondent for the detroit free press. and our own chief white house correspondent norah o'donnell

and her partners the dynamic duo here political director john dickerson. john, you just heard rick santorum. what do you make of it? >> not backing down. that's what a lot of these conservative voters like about rick santorum. at the end he said he's happy to make news about issues of the day that aren't talked about very much. that's what he's pitching. i'm thinking about these issues social issues all the time. and they get pushed to the side but i'm the one who is going to stand firm and say these things that are unpopular and create a flap. that's great for his support within the strong conservative base of the republican party. his political challenge is how to grow his vote both within the republican party to people who want to hear about other issues but also in the general election. independent voters. what do they hear about? conservatives like the fact that rick santorum makes a strong break with barack obama. but what do independents want to hear about? when they hear that conversation, they may think, gosh, this is a lot of change in a world that is already moving fast. i'm not sure about him as a general election candidate.

>> schieffer: how is this going to play in michigan? what does your newspaper report? >> i think what john said is dead on because frankly i think that a lot of moderate voters somewhat conservative voters who are the natural constituency for governor romney are kind of not playing in the republican field. i think they're not sure they want to be part of this primary. which ends up hurting him in michigan help santorum in michigan but hurting romney. >> i was in michigan this week at a mitt romney event in western michigan. near grand rapids. very conservative part of the state. the first two people i talked to in the crowd told me they had been thinking about romney. now they were leaning toward rick santorum. those people brought up exactly these kinds of issues. you know, the contraception decision. the gay marriage decision. i mean, they feel that rick santorum is a very clear voice on these issues. now these same issues could though be a problem in a general election. >> schieffer: i'll tell you one thing. nobody has accused rick santorum of not being a

conservative. romney is having such a hard time making the case that he really is a conservative, whether he is or not. they don't make that case about rick santorum. i know, norah, the white house took particular offense at what santorum said yesterday about the president on the religion thing. i think robert gibbs who is the senior advisor said it was a new low, i believe, he said. >> right. once again that's because rick santorum was questioning his theology. of course theology is the study of religion so it suggests that santorum was talking and suggesting that the president is not a christian. he disavowed that today. rick santorum has won four states. mitt romney has won three states. rick santorum is arguably the frontrunner at this point. but the obama campaign is not switching their focus. there would be political malpractice in their words not to look at rick santorum and study his record but they still think at end of the day mitt romney will ooek this thing out. the obama team is not

attacking rick santorum. i feel like we say this often. it's because they want rick san torp up to continue to stay strong and watch this primary last for several more months as the president holds back the official event, raises money and also focuses on the economy. we saw something change this last week in our own cbs news poll. the president hitting 50% in his approval ratings for the first time also in head to head match-ups defeating all of the four potential republican challengers. the president may have a little bit of his mojo back. as the republicans are advertise tracted on social issues and not focusing on president's economic record that may give the president breathing room for a short time. >> schieffer: i'm not one of those that is saying newt gingrich is dead. i've already said he's dead twice. twice he's risen from the dead. he now has the new infusion of money, i guess, john, so i'm not sure it's a two-man race yet. it might be but i'm not sure it is. >> it's not. and the best thing that can happen to newt gingrich's

campaign is that we can declare it dead. it comes back right after that happens. what we've seen in the poll s is that those conservative who loved what newt gingrich was saying, they love with a rick santorum was saying today on your show. that's why the votes are slipping away from gingrich. gingrich also in michigan where we're all paying attention because it's the race that is a fairer race, if romney doesn't do well he can't say there's peculiar laters about this state. gingrich sort of is isn't in that picture. he's got to wait all the way to super tuesday. that's a long wait. where some of those southern states might be more favorable to him but he does have a debate coming up on wednesday. that's where he's done well. >> schieffer: scott, let me ask you this. this whole business of the bailout. it seems to me the bailout worked. this was started by george bush. he said last week in a speech, if i had to do it again, i would do it again. people are working. general motors made this record profit. yet both romney and santorum have gone out there and come out against the bailout.

is that going to sell out there? >> it's going to sell in a republican primary the way it looks right now because there's a lot of anti-bailout feelings there and around the country. >> schieffer: todd, not scott. sorry. >> that's fine. but it does hurt him in the general. quite frankly michigan has gone for a democratic president in the general since 1988. that's probably not going to change this time with all the republican candidates romney included saying the billout was a mistake. >> schieffer: where do you think this race is going, karen? as a reporter, i am hoping, of course, that it goes all the way to the convention because we hadn't had one like that. it will be so much fun to cover. i say that as a joke. where do you see this going? it's going to go on for a while it looks like. >> it is going to go on for a while. the republicans will tell you that's not necessary a bad thing. they say they set up their calendar so it worked this way. the way the delegates are apportioned would work this way. they point out that four years ago a long primary battle actually strengthened barack obama for the general election. but what was different about

four years ago was the tone of the race. i don't recall hillary clinton and barack obama making this kind of very intense personal attacks really on reach other that we're hearing from the republicans and more importantly from republican super pacs who are just carpet bombing the opposition. >> schieffer: right up against the clock, norah. what does the president do next. >> the''s campaign is sit and waiting until they launch their first official campaign swing. he's behind when george w. bush and president clinton launched their first official campaigns. they keep stock piling cash and focusing on mitt romney. i think the presidencies that this laser-like focus on talking about his jobs agenda has benefited them for the near term. >> schieffer: all right. i'll be back with some final thoughts in just a minute. ♪

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>> jim: finally today, we interrupt this program with a bulletin. congress did something. i mean really. we're not kidding. congress actually did something friday. a bipartisan coalition of republicans and democrats agreed to extend the payroll tax cut for the rest of the year. that after republicans had vowed for two months to oppose it unless there were huge cuts in government programs. there were no such cuts. instead republican congressman greg walden of oregon said we needed to get this policy moved forward. when you're in the majority, you have to govern. translation: this is an election year. we were about to get our

kiesters handed to us on a plaster. so the tax cut passed with plenty of republican support. don't get me wrong. like the republicans, i'm not much for tax cuts that aren't paid for. nor do i agree with some democrats who saw this as ranking in importance with the invention of penicillin. but letting that tax cut expire could have hurt a lot of struggling working people. when experts say that could have endangered a frail economic recovery, it sounds right to me. but more important, bipartisan cooperation could be contagious, a pleasant experience for both sides which could tempt them to try it again. who knows? if they got in the habit of working together they might move beyond the stop-gap measures and tackle something of real significance. back in a moment. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

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